Filipino groups jog for human rights

Manila: A campaign against torture, kidnapping, and judicial killings in the Philippines saw more than 700 people participate in a jogging event in Quezon City on Wednesday. Representatives of leftist and progressive groups, including the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines ¡X groups often accused of enforcing torture, human rights violations, and kidnapping of leftist groups ¡X ran for the campaign.

There were 76 incidents of torture from 2010 to April 2013 ¡X the first three years of President Benigno Aquino¡¦s tenure. This is more than half of the 128 cases of torture recorded during the nine years of former president Gloria Arroyo¡¦s rule, Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of rights group Karapatan, said. Citing the example of Cesar Graganta and his companions who were arrested by government soldiers in Quezon, southern Luzon, on May 29, 2012, Marie said: ¡§Soldiers punched and kicked him, put a bolo [kind of knife] to his neck, hit him with a piece of bamboo, put sharp sticks in his ears, tied a rope around his neck, pinched his nose with pliers and poured ants on his body¡¨. In another case, two Filipino ¡X Richard Oblino, 25, and his nephew Orlan, 16 ¡X were tortured by soldiers in Samar, central Philippines, on February 28 this year.

¡§The soldiers forced Richard to the ground, took off his shirt and used it to blindfold him. Then they stomped on his legs and stomach; they poured water in his mouth,¡¨ Marie added. The Philippines¡¦ Anti-Torture Law, enacted in 2009, ¡§has not prevented the government to use torture to extract information from detainees or abducted persons. The government violates its own laws,¡¨ Hilao-Enriquez said, adding that torture has become a government policy because it is a component of the military¡¦s Oplan Bayanihan (which targets critics of the government). ¡§There are now 16 documented cases of disappearances and the victims remain missing to date,¡¨ Lorena Santos, Secretary General of Karapatan, said. Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan ¡X students of a premier University of the Philippines ¡X were abducted by military men in 2006. Their mothers took part in the jogging campaign.

They said they were disappointed that the mastermind of the abduction, Gen. Jovito Palparan, former head of the Army¡¦s 7th Infantry Division in Nueva Ecija, central Luzon, remained missing despite a warrant and President Aquino¡¦s P2million (Dh166,666) reward for his arrest.

¡§In all the cases of enforced disappearance, none of the perpetrators are punished or put to jail,¡¨ Santos of Karapatan, said. She also blamed the government¡¦s counterinsurgency campaign for the growing cases of disappearances in the provinces.

Many observers also expressed fear that the missing students and countryside development workers might be dead. Addressing majority of those who joined the jogging event, Atty, Edre Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of People¡¦s Lawyers, said, ¡§We call on all those left behind by those who have disappeared, extrajudicially killed, including victims of torture and other human rights abuses to channel our energies toward making government and the violators accountable, and (to make) our society safer, better and decent.¡¨

Many of those who joined the jogging event sadly predicted that the next three years of the Aquino administration ¡§will still be marked by continuing, if not worsening human rights violations¡¨.

The United Nations earlier said in a report that extrajudicial killing in the Philippines has been due to the government¡¦s counterinsurgency campaign. The Philippines government and the communist National Democratic Front (NDF) have been holding on and off peace talks since 1992.

NDF is composed of 17 progressive groups, including the 44-year old Communist Party of the Philippines and its military wing, the New People¡¦s Army (CPP-NPA) that were established during the time of former President Ferdinand Marcos, who established a Martial Law rule in 1972.

(2013-06-27/gulfnews)